The happiest Christmas
by Herrera
Summary: This is some kind of second part of my last year's Christmas fic  "Merry Christmas" , but it can be read as an independent story. Millie Taylor, Mac's mom, leads the fic and we will know her point of view about Mac and Stella's relationship.


First, thanks to our friend Marnic, who helped me with this English version, even when she was extremely busy.

Second... Merry Christmas to all of you!

This story is in some way the second chapter of my last year fic "Merry Christmas". It isn't necessary to have read it to understand this one (I liked you did it, sure, it was sweet and a bit silly... but right for the occasion). The difference between the previous fic and the current one: last year we still could think Mac and Stella would have a happy end together. Well, for me that's possible, as you will see.

CSI NY characters don't own me (if they did, they had followed another way, that's sure...) I write about them only to have fun and the personal satisfaction which gives me the fact that someone read my stories and liked them.

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**The happiest Christmas**

Another year of white Christmas ... Well, that's what can be expected in winter, Millie Taylor thought to herself while her plane was approaching the New York airport and all the visible landscape around the big city was covered in a white robe.

She was travelling again from Chicago to spend this year's Christmas time with her son and her... "Daughter-in-law" to be? She hoped so. She fervently hoped. Especially because they looked happy and in love together, and Millie couldn't understand why they were waiting to raise a further step in their level of commitment, and make it definitive. "I'm old fashioned", she said to herself. "A couple does not need a marriage certificate or going to the church anymore to be considered as a couple in every way, but..." Millie wanted something permanent, visible to the world, something strong that served as the foundation for a new family. If there was anything she wanted for her son, was seeing him happy, and to know that while she would be missing him as his mother, Mac wouldn't be alone. Since she had met Stella Bonassera, Millie also wanted the same for her. Stella had had a life of loneliness and rootlessness, and although probably she couldn't miss what she hadn't known, Millie was sure that starting her own family with her son, Stella would be as happy as she had not even dared to imagine.

During the landing manoeuvre, Millie revived in her mind the same period last year, when, after a flight full of problems and delays due to bad weather, she had arrived at the airport in New York like now. Then, exiting to the area where people wait for their friends or relatives, she had seen Mac and Stella sleeping in the same chair, exhausted from the long day and the long wait. They did not know, but that had been her best Christmas gift. The image of Stella sitting on his son's lap, embracing his neck, and Mac's arms around her, protective, had finally shown that their unbreakable friendship was moving towards something else.

But a year had passed since then, a year in which Millie had hoped for an engagement, a proposal, a wedding announcement, or even a wedding without engagement or announcement... And there was nothing. On Thanksgiving, a little over a month ago, Mac had taken Stella to Chicago with him. Well, that was important. Throughout his life, the only woman that Mac had brought to his mother's home had been Claire, and that happened after their marriage. Millie had had a little fun at their expense, asking her son if they needed two bedrooms, because there was only one prepared. Stella had flushed to the roots of her hair, smiling shyly. Mac had muttered between his teeth, "Mother!" and had simply taken both travel bags and had led them to the bedroom.

Well, they were a couple. The three of them had thoroughly enjoyed those days. For Stella, spending Thanksgiving with a family was a complete novelty, and every minute was precious to her. She had never cooked a turkey, and now Millie taught her everything. They prepared a great table and enjoyed a memorable dinner. With the coffee and dessert, Millie had been very talkative, because of the joy that Mac and Stella's company gave her (and a bit too of the several glasses of her favourite sweet wine also) and so she dared to ask them about their future plans. They looked at each other, Stella blushed like a schoolgirl and Mac simply replied that they hadn't foreseen anything. Millie had the impression that Stella avoided her gaze, and the older lady felt that Stella did want something else, and yes, she was ready to move forward. But both knew Mac. He always needed his time, he always had to be sure that he wouldn't regret his decisions.

- "Son, I'm just saying that you are no longer children... And I would like to have a grandchild". The two looked at her in panic and Stella blushed again. Millie had the impression that they hadn't even raised the subject, at least certainly not Mac. But she insisted.

- "And, of course, I would like it happened while I am still able to knit his or her first baby clothes and booties..." Mac's look stopped her. "Okay, it's your business... But it's also a bit mine... And look, as I started, I actually would like more than one grandchild. The best gift you can give a child is a sibling. Not that your father and I didn't try, Mac, we always wanted to give you at least one brother or sister, it's just that you don't always get what you want... So you don't leave it for too late".

With that speech she had said goodbye to them that night and the next day nobody mentioned the subject again. But talking about knitting had given Millie an idea and when the couple went for a walk, she had measured a blouse that found in Stella's luggage to knit a sweater for her as a Christmas gift. Now it was in her suitcase, wrapped in gift paper and inside a gift box, made of soft and warm mohair in a green shade, lighter than her eyes, and Millie was sure that Stella was going to like it. She had knitted for Mac a woollen scarf too, that she was sure her son would appreciate it during days like these, in the cold climate of New York.

This time, Mac and Stella were not asleep, but aware of the passenger exit doors. Greeting her from afar with their hands, they came to embrace her. She was glad to see them so happy. The look in her son's eyes had a spark of happiness when he was with Stella, that she had seen often when he was a kid but rarely the past years. And Stella was especially beautiful. Millie thought that she would never pressure them or insist on anything about their relationship, because they looked so happy that nothing else really mattered.

Stella was the first one to open her gift on Christmas Day. Carefully folded, there it was, the softer sweater that her hands had touched in her life. Millie had done it for her and she encouraged her to try it on, to see if it fitted her. Stella's reaction startled the woman, as the initial tears became sobs while pressing the sweater against her lap. Mac held her, soothing her. He had a suspicion of what was happening.

- "Shhh, shhh ... My mother will think you don't like it..."

Stella raised her tearful eyes towards Millie, before releasing Mac's arms and headed towards her to hug her.

- "Thank you, thank you, really... It's... So beautiful, but even if it was the most horrible in the world I'd like. It's just that nobody had ever done anything for me, do you understand? While I have memories, all I had was inherited from other older girls or cheap clothing. And after that, I had what I could afford... Nobody thought of me to give me something to wear as a present, something nice... and far from it to have done it for me..." She broke the embrace, still excited, and taking off her robe she put on the sweater over her tank top. It fitted her wonderfully. Her eyes cleared up to the tone of the wool, and the size was perfect, adjusted at the neck and waist, and the perfect long too. She embraced Millie again with full force.

Meanwhile, Mac had unwrapped his scarf and had put it on too, making several passes as a model. The women laughed at him. Then Stella went to get their gift to Millie and sat next to her not wanting to miss her reaction when she opened it. Mac looked at her, leaning on the table, with a knowing smile.

When she opened the box, Millie took only a few seconds to process the information before crying in joy. There were two knitting needles that prickled three small skeins of soft wool, one white, one light blue and one pink.

- "Does this mean what I think it means?"

Mac spoke.

- "What do you think?"

- "I think that with this I'll have enough wool for a pair of booties in each colour, and I'll have to buy more for matching little clothes..." She looked at Stella, who was shedding tears and nodding.

- "Then you think well... but you're missing something, there, in the bottom..."

Millie unboxed an envelope that had a card and a photo. The picture was an ultrasound, where some kind of large and well-defined bean was visible over a blurred tangle. There was something indicated at the margin: "Baby Taylor, ten weeks."

- "Ten weeks... So in Thanksgiving..."

Stella smiled, wiping the remaining tears.

- "I didn't know for certain, but I suspected it. I was almost two weeks late..."

- "And I had no idea," said Mac. But still, you're missing something else".

The card was a wedding invitation. On December 29th, civil ceremony and lunch at the Hotel... Now Millie was in tears, some of them falling on the thick ivory paper of the invitation card.

- "I changed my mind". Stella's words did Mac to look at her with frightened eyes. Stella began to laugh. "Not about the wedding, silly." Mac kissed her, stroking her cheek. "I had already decided what I was going to wear, but..." She stood up, stretched her new sweater, and turned slowly to show herself again, modelling... "I will get married wearing my new sweater. It's the most beautiful garment I've ever had in my entire life".

Dressed in green mohair, Stella Bonassera became Stella Taylor, Mac's wife and the mother of Millie's first future granddaughter. By the following Christmas, the baby would be six months old and at such a young age, and unexpectedly, those following Christmas would get along with her parents and grandmother, the news that she would soon become a big sister. Not even in her craziest dreams, Millie Taylor had expected life would be so sweet at this stage of her life. She knew that all the years she lived she would enjoy Christmas in the company of the beautiful family that Mac and Stella were so effectively creating. And every year, she was sure, it would be the happiest Christmas.

The End


End file.
